Incinerator with raking arm



Dec. 1, 1953 l, A, YON 6 2,660,966

INCINERATOR WITH RAKING ARM Filed May 6, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 I INVENTOR. IVOR A. L yon/s "gm-6m A T TORNE Y Dec. 1, 1953 I 1. A. LYONS 2,660,966

INCINERATOR WITH RAKING ARM Filed May 6 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. IVOR A. LYONS I ATTORNEY Dec. 1, 1953 I. A. LYONS INCINERATOR WITH RAKING ARM 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed May 6, 1950 INVENTOR. IVOR .4. LYONS AT TORNE Y Patented Dec. 1, 1953 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE This invention is concerned with incinerators and particularly with incinerators for garbage and-the like having a hearth with a rotating stoking arm which is intended to move the material being burned and thus aid in its combustion.

One incinerator of the foregoing type has a single circular hearth with an upright central shaft on which outwardly extending stoking arms are mounted. These arms scrape around the hearth and move the charge on the hearth in front of them. The arms are rotated very slowly, say onelrevolution in,15 or 20 minutes, in order to prevent the jamming of the arm by material caught between the hearth and the arm. Even so, incinerator shutdowns to clear out such obstructions are not infrequent and arms may be and are broken because the obstruction is not detected intime. Worst of all, the slow rotational speed employed to reduce jamming is such that the material being burned is not tumbled about to the degree where combustion is aided markedly by the stoking operation. This and a number of other factors to be discussed later, produce slow, and inefficient combustion of garbagel or the like and greatly increase the consumption of auxiliary fuel, for example oil or pulverized coal, which is added to maintain proper temperatures in the apparatus.

To overcome the foregoing difficulties, I' have developed an improved incinerator in which the stoking arms may be rotated at much greater speed than in former apparatus and in which jamming is no longer a problem.

Generally speaking, in an incinerator of the type having a hearth, an upright shaft projecting through the hearth, and means for rotating the shaft, I provide an outwardly extending arm afiixed to the shaft above the hearth, the arm rotating around the hearth as the shaft is rotated. A rabble or stoking member is pivotally mounted on the arm in the direction of its major axis. The rabble is. mounted to swing backward and upward opposite to the direction of rotation of the arm when the rabble engages an unusually. heavyload on the hearth, allowing the rabble to clear the load, and in this manner preventing jamming of the rabble and arm.

Preferably, the weight of the rabble is sufflcient to, keep it. from swinging except when an unusually heavy load is present on the hearth. In an alternative, springing means may be employedto resist the upward and backward move-. ment. In this case, the rabble need not be as heavy, However, the, heavy rabble alone is pre- 2 ferred because of its simplicity and ruggedness.

The rabble may be mounted on the arm to engage the hearth below or suspended with its under side spaced a short distance from the hearth.

To improve combustion, I prefer to supply air to the hearth. This I do by the use of a hollow shaft-supporting means which also serves as a support for the overlying hearth and as an air conduit.

A presently preferred example of the incinerator of the invention is described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

7 Fig. 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of an incinerator constructed in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the incinerator of Fig. 1, along line 22;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the central portion of the incinerator of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a cross section of a hollow shaft-supporting beam of the incinerator of Fig. 1, along line 44;

Fig. 5 is a cross section of a stoking arm of the incinerator of Fig. 1, along line 5-5 of Fig. 3; and

Figs. 6 and 7 are cross sections of two modifications of the stoking arm illustrated in Figs. 1 and 5.

As shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, an incinerator of the type adapted to the burning of garbage or the-like includes a round fiat hearth ll, encompassed by an annular final burning and dump grate 12. Both the hearth and the grate are horizontally disposed in a cylindrical incinerator body or shell i6, constructed of refractory bricks. An upright rotatable shaft [5 extends from a pointbelow the hearth through a cylindrical support I! and the center of the hearth terminating in a cone l8. Two parallel stoking arms 20, 2! are tangentially aflixed below theaceooec ing hopper 29. This hopper has for its top an upper two-section door 30 which lies in the plane of a charging floor 28, and for its bottom a second two-section door 3i. The upper door is opened by drawing the two sections outward into two recesses 34, 35 of the charging floor. The lower door is opened in a like manner by moving its two sections outward onto a platform 31 nd th base. of t opp By closin the upper door, before dumping the contents of a filled hopper into the incinerator, garbage or the like may be introduced without lowering the temperature of the incinerator by drawing in excess air from above.

A relatively large opening 39 in the incinerae tor wall above the hearth is connected by a duct 40 to a combustion chamber (not shown). Four man holes 43 in the incinerator wall, each a short distance above a stoking floor 65, give access to the interior of the incinerator.

The annular dump grate is made up of eight equal sections 41, individually mounted on the incinerator wall. Each section (Fig. 3) is pivoted oif' center on an arm 48 which is rigidly affixed to a perforated plate 52- by two spaced bosses 53, 54 fastened to the under side of the plate. The pivot arm orshaft of each section extends through the wall. Two counter balances t fastened to the underside of the short end of each section aid in returning the section from its dumped position to its horizontal position. An arcuate skirt plate 55 is held to the inner edge of each plate. The sections are dumped by use of hand cranks (not shown), which are coupled to the outer ends 50 oi the pivot arms. If desired, the arms may be actuated hydraulically orby use of high pressure air.

The hearth proper (Fig. 2) is constructed of eight perforatedand removable plates, each having the shape substantially of a sector of a circle (as viewed in plan) The central shaft 15 is driven through a driven shaft 56 coupled to a motor 51 placed outside the incinerator on the stoking floor. The drive shaft passes from the motor through the wall into theinterior of a duct 58 defined by two abuttin cha nel. beams 60,, 6| (see Fig. 4). The shaft drives a gear mechanism housed in a box 63' which es s on t e fl or oi duct. ad ac nt t the ower an i. h up i h aft g 64 o pled by a short shaft 65 to the mechanism of" th box r es a h n. 66 which n es. a. r n gear 88 that, circumscribes and is aflixed 0. the upright shaft. The lower end of the upright shaft, is. rotatably supported by a thrust bearing disposed in an annular member II, which is, mounted n t r of e duct.

The tw in hann beams f rm the sole. support for the upri ht. haft. and its two stoker arms. As shown in Fig. 3, the cylindrical, sup-- port [1, through which the upright shaft, extends, restson the channel beams.

Each stoking arm is essentially an elongated beam (Fig. 5) with an open bottom, a. top 12, a, vertical rear side 13 which extends, downwardly mt e r ar. dge. of the. top, and. a d r ly sloping front side which terminates in a. ver-. tioal flange, 15A. The, sides and top, of t e. arm with the flange define a cavity H.

The, rabbles 23,, 24 are. elongated massive mem,-. bers of irregular cross. sectionwhich are pivoted to, the arms on rods. [6. The rods are Supported at their opposite ends by vertical members 16A. nly one sh wn), f the. arms n, i s. reely de- 4 and downwardly sloping side ll of each rabble engages the lower edge of the vertical flange.

The weight of each rabble is sufiicient to keep it from swinging except when an unusually heavy load is on the hearth. Preferably, the rabbles are spaced from the hearth (as shown); in an alternative, the rabbles may be suspended from the arms to engage the hearth. If a moving rabble should strike an object lodged in the hearth the, rabble is pivoted upwardly and backwardly into the cavity of the arm. By employing an arm with a hinged rabble instead of using an integral stoker arm and rabble to move the material of the hearth, jamming of the arm by material caught between the hearth and arm is no longer a problem. As a result, the speed of rotation of the shaft and attached arms may be increased.

In Figs. 6 and 7 two modifications of the stoker arm are illustrated. In Fig. 6, backward and upward movement of a rabble 18 is resisted by several. coil springs 19 disposed between a rearwardly extending arm affixed to the rabble and the inner wall of a downwardly sloping front side 8| ofa stoker arm 82. A rabble of the modification illustrated in Fig. '7 is affixed to a plurality of springy straps 86 attached to the inner wall of a leadingside 81 of a stoker arm 88. By using the springs of the two modifications, the weight of the rabble may be greatly reduced and still obtain effective agitation of the garbage lying on the hearth. If desired, the rabbles ofthe several modifications may be. constructed in several sections, in which case only the particular section engaging an obstruction will swing.

To improve combustion and thus increase the capacity of the incinerator, it is desirable to introduce regulated amounts of air to the hearth and to the final burning and dump grate. To ac- Q mplijsh this, means are provided for introducing air into two annular air chambers 90, 9| provided respectively beneath the hearth and the grate.

The air chamber of, the hearth has for its top, the hearth proper, and for its bottom, an annular decking 9,3. The inner circular wall of the annular chamber is the central upright shaft and the. outer circular wall, the eight skirt plates 5.5. of. he. final. burnin rate.-v Air is exhausted into the bed of the burning garbage through the. perforations of the, eight plates. making up the hfifli ith 12.1 12617- Eight horizontal, members. 95,. extending from the cylindrical. support IT to. eight. brackets 96 fastened. to, the furnace wall, support the hearth and. deck ng... These members are placed beneath the pivot arms of the, grate. sections so as not to interfere. with the dumpingof the grate sections.

The. annular air chamber of the, grate is defined by. the, inner wall of the furnace, the several kirt plates... and the grate, proper. The bottom of this air chamber is open.

A main duct. 91 supplies air from a. source (not. shown) This duct is connected by a short. lateral duct 98. to a bustle, pipe 99 which circum scribes the incinerator below the stoking, floor. All qua ter points; of, the incinerator body, indi-. vidual pipes 100 connected to the bustle pipe run up through the floor and thence horizontally through the incinerator wall, discharging air into. the grate chamber through its open bottom.

stokin floor, where; it opens. into. a horizontal duct. 1.0 The. horizo tal duct asses. throu h pending position, as shown in Fig. 5', a forwardly 7 the incinerator wall below the grate and opens grate.

.into the duct defined by the two channel beams which support the hearth.

The duct 58 of the channel beams is blocked by a plate [04 adjacent the base of the central shaft. Air is introduced from the duct 58 into the hearth chamber through a short vertical pipe I05.

In an alternative, the hearth may be supported by two I-beams placed in a side by side relationducts. A valve. I01 disposed in the lateral duct I02 governs the flow of air to the hearth chamber.

Four valve lEiBfFig. 2) placed in the four pipes may be introduced to obtain optimum combustion of the garbage.

Preferably, the exhaust gases of the incinerator are employed to heat the air prior to its intro- .duction to the two air chambers. air, the temperature of the incinerator is not By heating the appreciably lowered with the introduction of the air.

The incinerator is charged in the following manner:

"58 has athree-fold purpose. .as the sole support of the central shaft and aids The duct serves in supporting the hearth. In addition, this duct acts as a conduit for air to the hearth air cham-- her and as an enclosure for the drive shaft and associated linkages connecting the motor outside of the incinerator to the central upright shaft.

I claim: 1. In an incinerator having a hearth, an upright shaft disposed above the hearth means for rotating the shaft, the combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth and rctatableabout the hearth as the shaft is rotated, and at least one rabble hinged to the forward edge of the With the lower door of the charging hopper 7 closed, the garbage is dumped into the hopper. The upper door is then closed, and the lower door opened, permitting the garbage to fall into the incinerator. To maintain optimum temperatures garbage. However, by introducing heated air as indicated above, the amount of auxiliary fuel aids in the distribution of the falling garbage over the hearth. The garbage is burnt upon the hearth and gradually moved outwardly in a spiral path by the rotating rabbles of the stoking arms onto the final burning and dump Air introduced into the bed of garbage through perforations in the hearth accelerates combustion.

The material moved outwardly onto the dump grate frequently will contain some unburnt garbage. To aid in the incineration of this unburnt garbage, air is discharged through the grate into the material lying thereon.

At intervals, after, first cutting off the air supply to the two air chambers, the grates are dumped, causing ashes to fall into the hopper below. It is necessary to out off the air supply,

because with the lowering of the several sections of the dump grate, the annular hearth chamber is no longer closed.

By attaching the skirt plates to the grate sections, cleaning of the hearth air chamber is facilitated as the sections of the grate need only be lowered to gain admittance to the chamber.

As indicated at the outset, I provide improved stoking means which cannot be jammed. By use of the rabbles hinged to the stoking arms, it is possible to increase greatly the speed of rotation and thereby obtain effective agitation of garbage or the like being burned. Moreover, shut downs to remove jammed materials are lessened and the cost of replacing broken arms attributable to jamming eliminated.

The hollow shaft-supporting means or duct in the incinerator it may be necessary to add auxiliary fuel, e. g. powdered coal, with the arm on an axis running in the general direction 7 of the major axis of the arm, the rabble being mounted to swing backward and upward opposite to the direction of rotation of the arm and toward the arm upon the engagement of the rabbieiof an unusually heavy load on the hearth.

2. In an incinerator having a substantially flat hearth, an upright shaft projecting above the hearth and means for rotating the shaft, the combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth and rotatable around thehearth as the shaft is rotated, the shaft having a cavity in the bottom thereof, and a rabble hinged to the arm on the forward portion thereof ahead of the cavity, the hinge being substantially parallel to the major axis of the arm, the rabble being suspended from the arm by the hinge so that it will swing backward and upward opposite to the direction of rotation of the arm and into the cavity, the weight of the rabble being sufficient to keep it from swinging except when an unusually heavy load is present on the hearth.

3. In an incinerator having a substantially fiat hearth, an upright shaft projecting above the hearth and means for rotating the shaft, the combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth and rotatable around the hearth as the shaft is rotated, the arm having a'longitudinal cavity in its bottom, and a rabble hinged to the arm substantially parallel to its major axis in front of the cavity and suspended from the arm above the hearth, the rabble being hinged to swing upward and backward opposite to the rotation of the arm and into the cavity, the weight of the rabble being suflicient to keep it from swinging into the cavity except when an unusually heavy load is present on the hearth.

i. In an incinerator having a hearth, an up right shaft disposed above the hearth and means for rotating the shaftfthe combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth and rotatable around the hearth as the shaft is rotated, a rabble hinged to the forward portion of the arm and extending along a major'portion of the length of the arm,

with the axis of the hinge extending in the genarm and into the cavity of the arm, the weight of the rabble being sufiicient to keep it from moving upward and backward except when an unusually heavy load is present on the hearth.

6. In an incinerator having a hearth, an upright shaft disposed above the hearth and means for rotating the shaft, the combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth and rotatable around the hearth as the shaft is rotated, a rabble hinged to the front of the arm with the axis of the hinge substantially parallel to the axis of the arm, the rabble being hinged to swing backward and upward opposite to the rotation of the arm and toward the arm, upon the engagement by the rabble of an unusually heavy load on the hearth and means for blowing air up through the hearth in the path of the rabble.

7. In an incinerator having a hearth, an upright shaft projecting through the hearth and means for rotating the shaft, the combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth and rotatable around the hearth as the shaft is rotated, a rabble hinged to the front of the arm with the axis of the rabble hinge substantially parallel to the major axis of the arm, so that the rabble will swing backward and upward opposite to the direction of rotation of the arm and toward the cavity upon the engagement by the rabble of an unusually heavy load on the hearth, the hearth having a plurality of conduits extending upwardly therethrough below the path of the rotating rabble, an air chamber disposed below the hearth and communicating with the conduits, a hollow shaft-supporting means disposed across the incinerator below the chamber and communicating therewith, and means for blowing air into the hollow shaft-supporting means to be dispelled by the conduits of the hearth.

8. In an incerator having a hearth, an upright shaft disposed above the hearth and means for rotating the shaft, the combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth rotatable around the hearth as the shaft is rotated, a rabble hinged to the front of the arm with the axis of the hinge substantially parallel to the major axis of the arm, with the rabble hanging from the arm above the hearth and mounted to swing backward and upward opposite to the direction of rotation and toward the arm when the rabble encounters an unusually heavy load on the hearth, an air chamber below the hearth and a deck of removable perforated plates forming the hearth proper.

9. In an incinerator having a hearth, an up right shaft disposed above the hearth and means for rotating the shaft, the combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth and rotatable around the hearth as the shaft is rotated, a rabble hinged to the front of the arm and suspended from the arm above the hearth, the axis of the hinge being substantially parallel to the major axis of the arm so that the rabble will swing backward and upward toward the arm opposite to the direction of rotation of the arm, and springing means for preventing the rabble from swinging upward except when an unusually heavy load is present on the hearth.

10. In an incinerator having a hearth, an upright shaft disposed above the hearth and means for rotating the shaft, the combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth and rotatable around the hearth as the shaft is rotated, a rabble hinged to the front of the arm and hanging from the arm adjacent to the hearth, the axis of the rabble hinge being substantially parallel to the major axis of the arm, the rabble being hinged to swing upward and backward toward the arm and opposite to the direction of rotation of the arm, and means for preventing the rabble from swinging backward and upward except when an unusually heavy load is present on the hearth.

11. In an incinerator having a hearth, a dump grate having several sections disposed around the hearth, an upright shaft projecting through the hearth and means for rotating the shaft, the combination which comprises an outwardly extending arm fixed to the shaft above the hearth and rotatable about the hearth as the shaft is rotated, a rabble hinged to the forward part of the arm with the major axis of the arm substantially parallel to the major axis of the rabble hinge, so that the rabble hangs from the arm and rests on the hearth but will swing backward and upward opposite to the direction of rotation of the arm and toward the arm, an air chamber below the hearth, and skirt plates attached to the inner sides of the respective grate sections adjacent the hearth, the several skirt plates closing the outer side of the air chamber.

IVOR A. LYONS.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 551,342 Wentworth Dec. 10, 1895 1,758,805 Ridge May 13, 1930 1,879,680 Hartley Sept. 27, 1932 2,138,120 Raisch Nov. 29, 1938 2,402,436 Nichols June 18, 1946 2,483,918 Martin Oct. 4, 1949 2,514,657 Martin July 11, 1950 2,514,658 Mayer July '11, 1950 

